Davenport answers 'Jesus' call

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Aesop Entertainment has inked a deal with visual effects wizard-turned-director Richard Davenport to helm "Jesus on Line Four," one of the American Film Market's buzz scripts.

A spokesman for Aesop -- which has offices in Los Angeles, London, New York and Paris -- said the company was in advanced negotiations with BBC Films, the filmmaking arm of the U.K. pubcaster, to back the project. The plan is for the project to be set up as a U.K./U.S. co-production.

"Jesus" is billed as a punky, contemporary shock-jock riff about a guy working at a radio station who finds his show is being called by Jesus.

Penned by Bob Comfort ("Good Luck"), who is repped here by Frank Wuliger at the Gersh Agency, the script has emerged as one of the few buzz items at this year's market in Santa Monica.

The Aesop spokesman also said that the production and finance banner was looking to partner with a studio specialty arm on the movie, set to go into preproduction in January.

Davenport has worked on a slew of projects as a visual effects guru, including "Daredevil," "Dr. Seuss' The Cat In the Hat" and "Garfield: The Movie."